SEVCA's Mission

The mission of Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) is "to enable people to cope with, and reduce the hardships of poverty; create sustainable self-sufficiency; and reduce the causes and move toward the elimination of poverty."

SEVCA gives people the knowledge, tools, and support to break the cycle of dependence, and works to find solutions to the deep-seated problems of poverty, largely by empowering and collaborating with those whose lives are affected by it daily.

SEVCA was created in 1965 as a part of the nationwide 'War on Poverty' and chartered as a Community Action Agency (CAA)—a private non-profit corporation, locally initiated and governed, and designatd by local, state and federal officials as the 'anti-poverty agency' serving Windham and Windsor Counties.

Poverty Need Not be a Permanent Condition

SEVCA was founded on the belief that poverty need not be a permanent condition, that:

  • people can be empowered to rise out of poverty, and
  • the strength of our communities is measured by the quality of life of everyone within them.

Learn more.

"If I could give you one thought, it would be to lift someone up. Lift a stranger up--lift her up. I would ask you, mother and father, brother and sister, lovers, mother and daughter, father and son, lift someone. The very idea of lifting someone up will lift you, as well."

Maya Angelou